Love
by Raven Silvers
Summary: Sit down, lad. Let me get you a drink, and I’ll tell you the story of Lighthammer and Verlaine. Now, the whole world knows about the lovers, aye? Yeah, they do. Few, ‘sides the Bloodpack and Damaskinos, know how they got together.


Sit down, lad. Let me get you a drink, and I'll tell you the story of Lighthammer and Verlaine. Bloody Mary? They make some wicked White Russians here, too. Me, I like their sherry. Well, suit yourself. Barkeep! A Bloody Mary for my friend here.

Now, the whole world knows about the lovers, aye? Yeah, they do. Few, 'sides the Bloodpack and Damaskinos, know _how _they got together.

You see, a little o'er two years ago, me an' Chupa were good mates with Lighthammer. Quiet as anything, he was, but a good man to be around with. This was before the Bloodpack proper was formed, mind you, so no Reinhardt or Snowman or Asad, or Nyssa and that business with the Daywalker.

This is were it gets cheesy. Lighthammer's family were the von Trapps — no, nothing to do with that show — proud and noble family, dating back from the Dark Ages. Long line of warriors, and Lighthammer wasn't an exception.

No one is quite sure why or how, but the von Trapps were never on good terms with the von Esper family. That's right, Verlaine had a relative in the House of Erebus. It's a pity what happened to them, but I digress.

So, yeah, always feuding. Damaskinos had been able to forge a kind o' peace between them, to stop a civil war, but that didn't stop 'em from glaring at each other whenever they passed in the street.

Fast-forward to my birthday. Two hundred and fifty years, so my family threw a big bash, invited every pureblood family in Europe, and then some. Asad came to us then, actually, representing the Damaskinoses.

Lighthammer was there, while Chupa went to flirt with some girls. He's a wicked guitar player, did you know? Tried to use that, and they were impressed, heh. I think he got laid that night, 'cause he disappeared with the McCarthy sisters near morning.

Anyway, the von Espers were there, too. Raquel was dead, by then. What, ye don't know who Raquel von Esper is? She was Verlaine's twin, the wilder o' the two. If I remember right, she was always running off to America to party, 'cause she said that Europe was boring. Guess that's what happens when you go around the nightclub scene one too many times.

I was stone-drunk. Managed to get lost in the bigass garden maze my mother grew in our backyard, so Lighthammer had to come get me. I'm not sure what happened betwixt the time he entered the maze, and when he found me, but boy was he chummy with Verlaine. Love-struck, I think.

Refill? I'm getting thirsty, what with all this talking. Don't want one? Suit yourself, I s'pose.

I wake up the next night, with one helluva hangover. Don't really remember much o' the night before — Chupa filled me in, mostly — but it wasn't long before Lighthammer and Verlaine were going out with each other. I swear, I've never seen him like that before, all day-dreamy and in love. Was kinda worrying, 'cause at first we thought he'd gone daft. Took some convincing, but he told us that he and Verlaine were seeing each other in secret. He made us swear we'd not tell anyone, 'specially their families, because otherwise there might be a war. There hasn't been a pureblood death by another pureblood's hand in ages, except for Reinhardt's parents, but they were always crazy. Runs in the family, I s'pose.

They got really close. Verlaine started hangin' out with us, on the pretext that she was ignoring Lighthammer, but she wasn't. Hell no. Besides, it's kinda difficult to ignore Lighthammer, what with his size and all.

So, yeah, we were considering what to do with Asad's proposal of the Bloodpack. Not sure if we'd like to join, but she was all for killing her sister's murderer. Everyone knows what a menace the Daywalker is to our kind. He gets rid o' the halfbloods too, but he doesn't care if he kills any purebloods, and god knows there's not a pureblood family out there who hasn't lost one o' their own to him.

He'll never admit it, but whatever Verlaine said to do, Lighthammer would. You see, it was easy to tell they were head-over-heels about each other, even though they were always so restrained around others. It was a no-brainer that if she joined the Bloodpack, he would, y'know?

Their families found out about the romance. It was six, maybe seven months after my birthday, and we're not sure how, but they found out. It was probably on one o' their dates at the nightclubs that they were spotted making out, but we'll never know.

God, you should've seen the uproar. It was terrible; the von Esper and von Trapp families were screaming for blood, mine and Chupa's included, because we abetted in their relationship.

The two o' them fell out with their families. I reckon there were screaming matches and broken furniture at the end o' it. The scandal was huge. I think even Damaskinos found out, but he didn't say anything. I helped them get a place — nothing too big or fancy, just a downtown apartment where they could tide it out. We came _this_ close to a war. It would'a been a mess, if we had, because we'd have to take sides. Civil war's never a clean business.

Thank goodness Asad showed up when he did, asking us whether we wanted to join the Bloodpack. It offered a way out, y'see; Lighthammer and Verlaine would get the chance to work together, while huntin' down the killer of our race, away from their families. They gladly obliged him, and since me and Chupa didn't exactly have any other commitments, we said yes.

Two days later we found out that they've been disowned. I don't think they were torn up about it. After all, they had each other.

So yeah, that's their story. Not as colorful as you thought it'd be, huh? Hah. Come on, drink with me. I've to go back to the Bloodpack later on, but I'll be damned if I don't wake up with a hangover tomorrow night. Bottoms up!


End file.
